Homes in Vesta Show Feature Motifs of 1840s

By Jerome Obermark
– The Commercial Appeal –

Six new homes with architectural characteristics of homes built in the 1840s in the Collierville area are featured in this year’s16th annual Vesta Home Show.

It opens Saturday and continues daily through October 24 in the Neighborhood at Schilling Farms.

Hours are from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. daily, except Fridays when they will be open until 9 p.m.

The Neighborhood is located south off Winchester Road about a mile east of Bailey Station Road.

"We expect to draw more than 30,000 this year. We always get a good turnout in Collierville," said David Parsons, a home builder who heads his own firm. He is chairman of the Vesta Home Show. Vesta is the main home show held each year by the Memphis Area Home Builders Association. Admission is $7 at the gate. Advance tickets can be purchased for $6 at First Tennessee Bank branches in Collierville, Bartlett and at Germantown Road and Poplar.

Featured homes are priced from about $450,000 to more than $560,000.

Two of the show homes, both built by Danny Sparkman of Sparkman Home Builders LLC, were sold before completion.

"Home buyers like the area, the smaller lots, the walkway to the school, the old-time look of the houses," Sparkman said.

"We have had a lot of interest and phone calls from people who have seen the houses being built," he said.

Russell Bloodworth, executive vice president of Boyle Investment Company, said achieving that old-time look "didn’t just happen."

It resulted from architectural controls and working with builders to ensure the look of homes built in the Collierville area from about 1835-1840, Bloodworth said.

Similar homes were built about the same time in LaGrange, Tennessee, and Holly Springs, Mississippi, Bloodworth said. For the most part, the homes reflect the architecture as that of the late Federal period, 1835-1840, Bloodworth said. A few homes have Greek Revival characteristics similar to homes built in the area in the 1860s, he said.

Architectural controls govern all 87 houses to be built in The Neighborhood as well as commercial buildings in Schilling Farms, Bloodworth said.

The show homes wrap partially around McGinnis park. A walkway beside one of the homes connects the one-acre park to the new Schilling Farms Middle School just south of the homes.

Lot sizes in The Neighborhood average 9,200 square. Lot widths range from 50 to 80 feet and depths are about 140 feet. Setbacks (front yards plus sidewalk) from the curb are slightly less than 25 feet. Front porches cover part of that space, so front yard space is narrow, but nicely landscaped.

Immediately east of The Neighborhood`, Patton, Taylor & Ryan is developing 75 lots on 14 acres called Sterling Square at Schilling Farms. It will have 43 detached patio homes and 32 attached homes for sale, and a community pool and dressing area, said Paul Ryan, president of Patton, Taylor & Ryan.

Additionally, Boyle expects to develop about 150 lots on 40 acres immediately west of The Neighborhood, Hayden said.

Unifying elements for Schilling Farms already are in place. They include white towers topped with a white agrarian-looking structure. The towers mark entry points. Also, tree-lined boulevards, antique street lighting, green light poles and park benches provide a consistent feel for the overall development, Hayden said.

"The Vesta homes have set the tone for The Neighborhood at Schilling Farms," said Trey Hayden, vice president of Boyle Investment Company Company.

More than 320 homes are planned as well as more than 650 apartment units in the two apartment communities under construction in Schilling Farms.

The average annual family income of households living within a 6-mile radius of Schilling Farms exceeds $100,000, Bloodworth said.

That estimate was prepared for developers of Schilling Farms by National Decision Systems Company, a 20-year-old, San-Diego-based company that prepares studies based on demographic data.

That 6-mile radius takes in the eastern half of Germantown, Bloodworth said. However, the estimate within a 3-mile radius was $99,000, he said.

Formerly a working farm, Schilling Farms is starting to take shape as a pedestrian-sensitive mixed-use community. It will include offices, hotels, banks, restaurants, retail, apartments and single-family homes.

"We have pedestrian walkways in place.